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U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

cnbc.com

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Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#461

Post by georgeecollins »

pxc wrote: post #102

I am so tired of China being used to stoke American jingoism, of politicians making a contest of who is really 'tough on China' and, most horrifyingly, of seeing other USians online practically salivate as they fantasize about a war with China. It's some cold war boogieman horseshit. And it's depressing to watch here on Hacker News, too, any comments that question the beating of those war drums go dead. Yesterday I h…

Did you come to this view after watching a lot of TikTok?

(for the literal net = a joke!)

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#462

Post by mmaunder »

SN76477 wrote: post #375
pard68 wrote: post #338

I have been in "no politics, no news" mode for over a month. I try to do this about once a year. I have yet to tell my wife I do it, but when I am on this limited media consumption she always comments how pleasant I am to be around. I think it is a good thing for all of us to do once in a while, until 80 years ago most news was at best three or four days old, go back 120 years and you're getting only last weeks top t…

I ignore the majority of it myself. Maybe I'm a pessimist but there is little I can do to make an impact on geopolitics. I want to spend my energy on the things I can control and little energy on anything else. I'm much happier being completely unaware of whatever may be happening with the world.

So interesting to see this thread. I carefully curate and limit my intake and am intensely aware of the anger economy news organizations have built to drive engagement. Glad to hear others are avoiding being a product and are staying healthy.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#463

Post by moomoo11 »

SergeAx wrote: post #454
moomoo11 wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really believe the USAF and rest of the military and 3 letter agencies had not already intercepted/jammed/hacked the comms link? By letting it saunter all the way across they also probably got a lot of good info on its capabilities.

FWIW, all comms of that balloon would be satellite. I don't think it is easy to jam, let alone intercept.

I’m sure in 1970s nobody nobody thought GPS would become a reality within a decade. “They will never be able to pinpoint position that way!”

My guy. It’s the United States military. All the shit we use is a by product of their first move.

If it seems impossible today they’ve already figured it out. Not to mention they made a nuclear bomb and the Manhattan project was an insane achievement.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#464

Post by foverzar »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #430
sabujp wrote: post #146

Spy balloon cost : $3k - $50k , you can even buy them on alibaba and some other sites: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/China-hot-sale-surveillance-balloon-with_60454941082.html https://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/jennerjiang/product-list/catalog-1.html?view=0 Cost to shoot down balloon with F22 $400k for the AIM-9X, ~$85k for 1 hour of flight time, so ~$400 - $500k to shoot down one balloon that cost < $50k

What's your point? We should make military decisions based on how much the target costs? You don't understand why that's ridiculous?

> We should make military decisions based on how much the target costs

Yes?..

> You don't understand why that's ridiculous?

No?.. Don't you understand how the cost of action is the base of military economy?

This is hardly a military decision, it's purely a PR decision.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#466

Post by remarkEon »

Sidestepping the geopolitical issues with this for a moment ...

What advantage is there to using a high altitude balloon for surveillance? I have to imagine there are some - like longer loiter time over a specific point, maybe better optics because you are still in atmosphere, it's obviously cheaper than launching a satellite - but I don't really know enough about this kind of hardware to say.

Or maybe the point wasn't to actually look at anything, but instead see how the US would respond?

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#467

Post by ineedasername »

SergeAx wrote: post #426
ineedasername wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China is not simply rolled out as a boogeyman. Apart from any of their ambitions, at minimum the worlds reliance on them for various resources and manufacturing capacity almost exclusively has, in the last 2.5 years, been revealed as an extreme flaw and risk to global economic stability when that resource and manufacturing pipeline is disrupted. That is, at a bare minimum, a serious problem that will take years to so…

Which exactly China geopolitical goals not aligned with the West do you mean? Where are they declared?

Are you asking for more information out of curiousity or are you also trying to imply that my assessment is incorrect? It is difficult to approach an answer to your question without knowing more about your expectations and intentions in asking it.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#468

Post by shrimp_emoji »

pxc wrote: post #102

I am so tired of China being used to stoke American jingoism, of politicians making a contest of who is really 'tough on China' and, most horrifyingly, of seeing other USians online practically salivate as they fantasize about a war with China. It's some cold war boogieman horseshit. And it's depressing to watch here on Hacker News, too, any comments that question the beating of those war drums go dead. Yesterday I h…

Who else feels the lonely anguish of being simultaneously anti-Chinese dictatorship AND very sympathetic of the parent post and thus saddened and alienated by posters of either extreme?

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#469

Post by ilostmyshoes »

NegativeLatency wrote: post #406
KennyBlanken wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like the large size is mostly just solar panels (I'm assuming that's what they were; they could have been 'sails' to help steer it) and their scaffolding. From some of the available photos there's two wings, each with eight panels. There's a tradeoff between the weight of the solar panels vs simply using batteries (though batteries don't like the cold, and solar panels do), so I think maybe they were hoping…

It could’ve actually been a “science experiment” just launched at the behest of the military as a test like you say. So they’d have plausible deniability like the “fishing boats” in the South China Sea

[dead]

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#470

Post by DonHopkins »

themodelplumber wrote: post #409
ceejayoz wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the pilot gets to paint a balloon silhouette on his plane.

To say nothing of the nicknames and jokes they'll hear for the rest of their life....

"Balloon Boy No Hoax"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVbV_Sis99o&t=1s

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